Geeks Will Soon Have Fewer B&M Options As RadioShack & Staples Announce Closures

Weak sales and fierce competition continue to take a toll on brick and mortar locations, leaving tech geeks fewer and fewer in-store buying options. Earlier this week two more retailers announced they'll be shuttering several location across the U.S., leaving us with even fewer options.

Long time geek favorite RadioShack, has announced it is closing 1,100 stores across the U.S. These 1,100 stores represent about a fifth of its total, with about 4,000 stores remaining once the closings are complete. Following suite Staples announced that it would close hundreds of members of its own chain. According to CNN, Staples plans to close 225 stores in North America by mid-2015, which equates to about 12 percent of its North American stores total.

Both companies reported that lower than expected sales and earnings during their last quarter, a period that included the holiday shopping season, and increased competition from online retailers like Amazon, and Newegg, as well as fiercer competition from other brick-and-mortars, such as Office Depot are the two major contributing factors to the closures.